2012 elections: Several incumbents toppled in Illinois congressional and state legislative primaries

SPRINGFIELD, Illinois: The Illinois primary election arrived today, with state voters flocking to the polls to decide which congressional candidate they wanted to see in the general election this November. Party primaries were held for 18 U.S. House seats, while on the state level, 59 State Senate and 118 State House seats were up for election.

One congressional incumbent was defeated while at least five state legislative incumbents fell at the hands of a challenger.

Third Party

State legislatures

Voters went to the polls to select candidates to appear on the November 6 ballot in 177 state legislative races in the State Senate and State House.

There are a total of 177 state legislative seats up for election this year. With two party primaries in each district, there were 344 possible primaries yesterday. Out of those 344 possible occurrences for voters to choose between multiple candidates, there were only 67 contested primaries. In other words, in 81.5% of the Illinois state legislative primaries, there was only one candidate running on the ballot -- or none at all.

There were 28 contested primaries in the senate, one of which, District 35, featured two current GOP incumbents who were drawn into the same district via redistricting. Dave Syverson faced Christine J. Johnson in the only state legislative incumbent vs. incumbent battle of the day.

There were 39 contested primaries in the house.

A total of 3 state senators and 2 state house incumbents were defeated. Additionally, one state house race between incumbent Democratic representative Toni Berrios and challenger Will Guzzardi remains too close to call.

District 53: Incumbent Shane Cultra was defeated by state house incumbent Jason Barickman in the District 53 Senate race. The two had a prior connection. In 2010, Cultra won election to the state house. But he was immediately appointed to the State Senate. Barickman was then appointed to replace Cultra.

State House

District 39: Incumbent Toni Berrios is locked in a neck-and-neck battle with Will Guzzardi. With 99% of precincts reporting, Berrios leads by less than 70 votes.